· The National Union of Mineworkers was the mightiest industrial force in the country for much of the 20th century and the only trade union credited with a government's scalp, when Edward Heath was voted out of power in 1974. Along with its industry, the union has shrunk to inconsequence today. But it retains vast assets and is involved in multi-million pound pensions for its army of former members.

· At the time of the 1984-85 strike, there were some 180,000 members. Two years ago there were fewer than 6,000 and predictions for the end of the coming year are below 3,000. During the same period the number of pits has shrunk from 170 run by the National Coal Board to 13, all private.

· Until the strike, the NUM enjoyed a monopoly over rank and file miners. The strike created the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers which took much of the NUM's Nottinghamshire strength.

· In 1945 the NUM sponsored 37 MPs, compared to 17 paid or part-paid by the TGWU. Today 12 MPs are still NUM-sponsored.

· At the height of Scargill's power in 1982, the NUM moved from London to build its own £2m headquarters in Sheffield, shaped like the head of a miner's pick. It was abandoned before it was finally completed, and the union now uses the old castellated Yorkshire office in Barnsley, known as Arthur's Castle, with red roses planted outside round a statue of a miner with his family by Graham Ibbeson, better-known for his sculpture of Eric Morecambe.

· Most poignant is the decline of the Durham Miners' Gala, once a huge rallying point for the labour movement, which leading Labour politicians felt obliged to attend and speak at. Last year's 117th gala was attended by only 1,000, and most Labour politicians no longer bother to go.